While I’ve been a fan of their music for quite some time, I finally saw them live last night at MSG. The concert was un-freakin’-believable. I think everyone in the audience had constant chills for the hour-and-a-half+ that they played. This music couldn’t have been man-made. I think that God himself transmitted his message through the band and its instruments. My life is now complete!
I can’t wait to see them again next week.
So my gift to all of you is a little advice: Go see Radiohead live at least once in your life. Please do this!
While I am not that much of a Radiohead fanatic, I do think they are one of the best bands I have ever seen live.
I saw them a couple of years ago at the Tibetan Freedom Concert. They put on one of the best live shows I’ve seen in a long time, and I’ve probably been to over a thousand concerts in the past 10 years.
It’s always nice to be able to go to a concert, and hear a band that sounds the same as they do on the album, even if they do mix things up. I used to love the Smashing Pumpkins, until I saw them live. I have a friend who is a complete SP fanatic, and he told me that they recorded the song “Today” in 144 takes, and spliced all the best parts together to make the song for the cd. I would not doubt this one bit, because I have seen them live and, IMO, Billy Corgan can’t carry a tune in a bucket with wheels on it.
Radiohead is one of those bands that can put it all together. The music is always tight, Thom’s vocals are as on as they can be, and the whole atmosphere is just awesome. They are definitely a band I would recommend people to see even if they don’t like the music.
Glad you got to see them, Jackknifed. I’m jealous that you get to see them twice!!
I saw them here in Atlanta about 2 weeks ago, and while I wouldn’t go quite as far as JJ did with the
,
It was rock-fucking-solid. I am usually a snob when it comes to seeing big, amphitheater, 10,000+ people shows – and (I thought) with good reason. I had never had fun at a big show, because of the disconnect between the audience and the band and the distance you usually are from the stage.
Radiohead changed that for me. It was incredible. The light show (which, usually, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about) was fantastic and they were musically as tight as any band I’ve ever seen live (I’ve been a frequent concert attendee for 12+ years now). They played a good mix of all their albums, and even some of the newer, atmospheric stuff that many people don’t like came off live really much better than I expected or hoped.
Thom Yorke is a rock star. 9 times out of 10, when I say that, I say it tongue-in-cheek and meant as derogatory. Not this time. He is a muthafuckin rock star. I have never seen anyone with stage presence like him nor seen an audience captivated by anyone like I recently saw at that show. They played 2 encores and were on stage for about 2 hours and 20 minutes.
My only complaint – they didn’t play “My Iron Lung” or “Street Spirit”.
JJ is right. Please go see them if you have the opportunity – it was about as good as shows get.
I saw them at the Chicago show last week (along with about 25,000 of my neighbors) and it was fantastic. The show was in Grant park along the lakefront, with the gorgeous city skyline as the backdrop.
I am not as big a fan as my wife, and I was really expecting the material from Kid A and Amnesiac to go over poorly since it is all very atmospheric and muddy sounding, even on the CDs. Okay, muddy isn’t the right word, but it’s certainly very dense. The rendition of “Idioteque” was f-ing brilliant… the highlight of the night for me, as Thom flailed about onstage as if his limbs were independent of his body.
As I suspect most casual fans do, I envisioned them as mopey, sullen lads who hated being out on the road, hated everything associated with being rock stars. Not so!!! Even from a hundred yards away, I could tell they were having a good time up there. Thom was downright playful at times when looking into the camera mounted on his little upright piano, and even dedicated a song to the nearly full moon that hung behind us in the sky.
It doesn’t usually happen this way, but I am a much BIGGER fan of Radiohead than I was before I saw this show. I was reading an interview with a musician (I can’t recall who) who said that the best advice he had ever gotten was to decide whether he wanted to be a rock star or an artist. Either one is okay, but you can’t be both, he said.